Tales of Ind eBook

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Vijianagar is here called Vijiapore.]

[Footnote 3: Literally, the moon.]

[Footnote 4: The allusion here is to the ancient
custom of Swayamvara (self-choice), which is
the election of a husband by a princess or a daughter
of a kshatriya at a public assembly of suitors for
the purpose.]

[Footnote 5: Chandragiri.]

THE KORATHY’S LULLABY.

The Korathy is the tattooer of the Indian village,
who offers her services for a small fee. Hindu
females are very fond of having their bodies tattooed.
The Korathy first makes a sketch of the figure of a
scorpion or a serpent on the part of the body offered
to her for tattooing, then takes a number of sharp
needles, dips them in some liquid preparation which
she has ready, and pricks the flesh most mercilessly.
In a few days the whole appears green. This is
considered a mark of beauty among the Hindus.
While the tattooing takes place the Korathy sings
a crude song, so as to make the person undergoing the
process forget the pain. The following is as nearly
as possible a translation of the song which I myself
heard:—­

Stay, darling, stay—­’tis
only for an hour,
And you will be the fairest of the fair.
Your lotus eyes can soothe the savage
beast,
Your lips are like the newly blossomed
rose,
Your teeth—­they shine like
pearls; but what are they
Before the beauties of my handiwork?

Stay, darling, stay—­’tis
only for an hour,
And you will be the fairest of the fair.
I’ve left my home, and all day hard
I toil
So to adorn the maidens of the land
That erring husbands may return to them;
Such are the beauties of my handiwork.

Stay, darling, stay—­’tis
only for an hour,
And you will be the fairest of the fair;
In days of old fair Seeta laid her head
Upon the lap of one of our own clan,
When with her lord she wandered in the
wilds,
And like the emerald shone her beauteous
arms.

Stay, darling, stay—­’tis
only for an hour,
And you will be the fairest of the fair.
And often in the wilds, so it is said,
She also of the Pandus went in quest
Of one of us, but found not even one,
And sighed she was not like her sisters
blest.

Stay, darling, stay—­’tis
only for an hour,
And you will be the fairest of the fair.
My work is done; rejoice, for you will
be
The fairest of your sisters in the land.
Rejoice for evermore, among them you
Will shine as doth the moon among the
stars.

TALES OF IND,

BY T. RAMAKRISHNA, B.A.

With an Introduction by the Hon. the Rev. W. MILLER,
M.A., LL.D., C.I.E., and dedicated, by permission,
to the late Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate.